Before YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, a famous house paint commercial from Puerto Rico became viral locally during the 1990’s. To promote their company, Harris Paints created a song with Caribbean rhythms and a patriotic lyric coupled with images of colorful splashes of paints. Frequency and a captive audience ensured this song stuck in the minds of a whole Puerto Rican generation. This commercial was aired for years in all of the movie theaters around the Island.
Even though the ad is not shown anymore, it is considered as the “second national anthem of Puerto Rico”. I will share with you the complete video and lyrics of this masterpiece that will bring good memories to Puerto Ricans and will help others to learn the colors and some other Puerto Rican Spanish words. So, stand up, place your right hand over your heart and sing with me!
Learn Colors in Spanish with Video Los colores de mi tierra
| SPANISH ORIGINALPinta tu vida con los colores de mi tierra. Pinta tu vida… Frambuesa piragua. Blanco como el coco. Amarillo mangó.Verde quenepa. Azul de adoquines. Rojo flamboyán. Turquesa del mar. Los colores de mi tierra, |
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONColor your life with the colors of my country. Color your life… Raspberry snow cone. White as coconut. Yellow mango.Green Spanish lime fruit. Blue from cobblestone. Red flame tree. Turquoise from the sea. The colors of my country, |
Isn’t it beautiful?! So now is the time to give credit to the creators that have passed unnoticed through the years. This song was written by Orlando Lagomarsino, the music was by Alberto Carrión, and the singer is Darvel García.
Learn Spanish vocabulary words from the Harris Paint commercial
Now, let’s review the Spanish vocabulary of this song more deeply.
1. Pinta
From the verb pintar, is the literal English translation of “to paint.” But in the context of this song, the word I used was “color” that is more aligned with the actual message: “give color to your life”.
2. Tierra
This word can be translated using different words in English, for example: dirt, Earth or land. In this case, tierra means “country.”
3. Piragua
In Puerto Rico it means “snow cone.” But in the rest of Latin America a piragua is a long canoe or kayak. Check out this infographic with 13 words in Spanish for snow cone.
4. Mangó
You might know this one, but I pointed it out because of the Puerto Rican pronunciation. Notice that Puerto Ricans put the stress at the end of the word and write it with an accent mark in the ó. In other countries is simply mango.
5. Quenepa
It is a green colored small tropical fruit. Some other names are mamoncillo, mamón, ackee, Spanish lime, genip, guinep, genipe, or honeyberry.
6. Adoquines
Plural for adoquín. These are cobblestones that can be seen in the streets of Old San Juan. They are blue colored and were brought in during the XVI and XVII centuries when the Island was a Spanish colony. The adoquines were used as ballast in the Spanish ships.
7. Flamboyán
It is a big shade flower tree, with the most common variation being red. Other names I could find were Royal Poinciana, Flamboyant or Flame Tree. You can also find this tree with yellow or orange flowers. Other Spanish names from Latin America are: chivato (Argentina and Paraguay), acacia roja (Colombia and Honduras), ponciana (Perú), and malinche (Central America).
Check out these other articles to help you Learn Spanish.
Collage photo descriptions and credits: Photos from Flickr: 1. PIRAGUA: Adding Syrup by edenpictures 2. COCO: Coconut (halved) by SingChan 3. MANGO: Cut mango by joyosity 4. QUENEPAS: ganepas by h-bomb 5. ADOQUINES: Adoquines by Diana Caballero 6. FLAMBOYAN: flamboyán by d3b…* 7. SEA: Vieques NWR beach by USFWS Headquarters via flickr
